The present inventor has been working for many years in the field of removal of contaminants from water streams without addition of chlorine or other disinfecting or coagulating chemicals thereto. Without implying any limitation on the scope of the invention disclosed and claimed herein, the inventor's efforts have been largely directed to removal of dissolved and ionized compounds and contaminants by exposing the water stream to one or more of ionized gas molecules, strong electric or magnetic fields, and metal ions, all of which tend, under appropriate circumstances, to "coagulate" or "agglomerate" the contaminants into larger particles, which can then be removed from the water stream by physical or electrically and/or magnetically stimulated filtration processes. This process is referred to as electro-coalescent/magnetic separation (ECMS).
More specifically, the inventor, in some cases with other inventors, has been granted U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,382,866, 4,562,286, 4,655,933, and 4,562,014, all directed generally to this subject matter, and disclosing various specific devices useful in ECMS water treatment systems. More recently, the inventor and another filed copending application Ser. No. 08/200,749 on Feb. 23, 1994, and the inventor filed Ser. No. 08/326,339 on Oct. 20, 1994.
Ser. No. 08/200,749, which is incorporated herein by this reference, is directed, as indicated generally above, to removal of contaminants from a water stream by adding ionized gases and other materials to a water stream and subjecting the water stream to a combination of electric and magnetic fields under specific flow conditions.
Ser. No. 08/326,339, also incorporated herein by reference, is again directed to removal of contaminants from water streams by mixing ionized materials with the water stream and subjecting the stream to electric and magnetic fields where appropriate. This application discloses an apparatus for exposing a stream of atmospheric air to ultraviolet light in the presence of electric and/or magnetic fields, such that a substantial fraction of the molecules of the air are ionized, forming ionized oxygen, including singlet molecular oxygen, ozone, and ionized nitrogen molecules. The ionized molecules promote oxidation and reduction of contaminants, and promote coagulation thereof for subsequent physical filtration. Ser. No. 08/326,339 also shows a convenient device for introducing metal ions into the water stream, further promoting coagulation of contaminants for subsequent physical removal by filtration, and forming bactericidal, viricidal, and fungicidal compounds in situ, so as to efficiently remove biological contaminants from the water stream. The inventor has also pending application Ser. No. 08/377,620, filed concurrently herewith (Attorney's Docket No. DJ-3), and incorporated by reference herein, directed to ECMS systems for removal of contaminants from water, including desalinization, and disclosing further preferred components and methods for non-chemical removal of contaminants from streams of water.
The prior art is well aware of the utility of ultraviolet and other electromagnetic radiation in disinfecting water, primarily by destroying organic molecules, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi, upon exposure to high-intensity short wavelength ultraviolet light. There are numerous references showing the utility of such processes. It would be desirable to make more efficient use of the radiation from a particular source than is now done, and in particular to combine the biocidal effect of ultraviolet radiation with the utility of simultaneous exposure of the water stream to a magnetic field. Still further, it would be desirable to simultaneously expose a stream of atmospheric air to ultraviolet radiation and a magnetic field in order to generate ions from the atmosphere for promoting oxidation, reduction, and coagulation, and for destruction and removal of contaminants in a water stream.